Supernatural Newbie Review: Season 1 Episode 1

I have no excuse as to why I’m coming to this show after it has already been on the air for eleven seasons. I actually watched the pilot episode back when it first aired in 2005 and enjoyed it. For various reason, I never got back to the show. Traveling all the time didn’t leave room for TV. I’ve caught episodes here and there when it airs on TNT, but again I just never had the time to devote to the show. I still don’t, but I’m tired of missing out on a show that so many people seem to love. So I’m inviting you to start watching the show along with me or re watch it again from the beginning. Maybe I can finish in time for the season twelve finale.

Image Courtesy of The CW

Please don’t be a dick and post spoilers in the comments section for future episodes.

Supernatural Season 1, Episode 1 “Pilot” Aired September 13, 2005

When we first meet the Winchester family, they look normal and happy. John (Jeffery Dean Morgan) is a loving father playing with his oldest son Sam and Mary (Samantha Smith) is putting baby Dean to bed. Tragedy strikes when Mary is found mysteriously pinned to the ceiling of Dean’s room just before she is engulfed in flames. John is able to get Sam and Dean out before the house burns down, but their mother disappears. Her body is never found in the ruins.

22 years later and Sam (Jared Padalecki) is happy living the normal life with his girlfriend, Jessica (Adrianne Palicki), and applying to law school. All of that changes when Dean (Jensen Ackles) comes into town, after two years of being off the grid, needing Sam’s help to find their father. He was on a hunting trip for whatever supernatural being he and his youngest son normally pursue and hasn’t checked in with Dean for several days. The younger brother needs help from someone who is a skilled hunter and is hoping his older brother will step in.

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Immediately the dynamic for the show is established. Sam is a pragmatic and intelligent guy who is tired of living the life of hunting other worldly legends. A life that involves credit card scams (hunting doesn’t pay anything) and conning people into believing he is an authority figure. All of this because their father is on a crusade to find out what happened to Mary. Dean is reckless and very charming. A wink, a smile, and the right fake ID usually gets him what he needs. He fully believes in his father’s cause and can’t understand why Sam would want such a normal, boring life.

Brothers as total opposites is nothing new, but Padalecki and Ackles have the chemistry to make it interesting. The two men may be at odds in the beginning, but once the brothers are on the road looking for their father you can see the familial relationship. There is a short hand with the two and a teasing nature. You can’t help but like them together. Of course in the beginning Sam is only willing to help for the day because he needs to get back home in time for an interview for his law school application. When the mystery is solved enough to where Dean at least knows where to go looking for their father next, Sam goes back home only to find Jessica pinned to the ceiling before she is engulfed in flames. Now the two brothers must team up to find their father and figure out why this happened to their mother and now Sam’s girlfriend.

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There is a ghoul of the week format and this time it is the “Woman in White.” She is more commonly known in Mexico and the Southern region of the United States under the name of La Llorona or the “Weeping Woman.” In Mexican folklore, La Llorona was a woman who drowned her children then killed herself after her husband left her for a younger woman. She is a vengeful spirit who kidnaps children who are caught roaming the streets alone and drowns them as an offering for her own children. Essentially she was a cautionary tale for bad kids. If you are not good little boy or girl, La Llorona will come and get you. Even though I am of Hispanic decent, La Llorona was not a tale I grew up with as a child. Some of my other friends did hear the fable from their parents growing up. For the show, the Mexican urban legend was retooled a bit. She was still a vengeful spirit who drowned her children then took her own life after her husband had an affair. In Supernatural she is a ghost who has haunted a single stretch of road for ten years looking for men who have been unfaithful to their women and making them disappear (I guess making children the victims would have been too much for the pilot episode).

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The week to week of fighting a new urban legend is fine for the beginning, but I’m more interested in the story behind what happened to Mary and Jessica. Also where is John Winchester hiding? Why is he leaving clues of his whereabouts to his son’s instead of leaving them messages as to where he is at? Is he hiding from someone or something? I know that mystery lasts for several seasons and it focuses more on the procedural aspect.

There have been many comparisons between Supernatural and The X-Files and I can see why. They both deal in the extra ordinary and want to find answers to the beyond, though I don’t think Dean and Sam are going to run into any little green men. (Don’t tell me if they do, please.) The two shows also center themselves around the relationship of the two main protagonists more than they mystery itself. For The X-Files, it was the burgeoning relationship between Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. In Supernatural, repairing the relationship between two brothers (and maybe their father) is front and center.

Image Courtesy of The CW

Overall, the show has promise and the mystery has me coming back for more.

What did you think of the pilot episode of Supernatural? Are you a super fan of the show? Or are you like me and just now getting around to watching? Let me know in the comments section below and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, please don’t post spoilers for future episodes.

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About Nerdling

The Nerdling has an unhealthy obsession with books, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Star Wars. She finds hockey to be the best sport in the world (Go Dallas Stars!) and is working on her first novel, but mostly glowers at a blank screen. You can find her on Twitter @nerdlingstale on Facebook @NerdlingTales or Instagram @nerdling_tales

2 comments on “Supernatural Newbie Review: Season 1 Episode 1”

I’m super excited for you! I also came to Supernatural late, starting around season 4 or 5, I don’t remember now. Then I fell away for a while while moving and doing other things only to binge through the back half the series in a blur to watch season 10 live and then…get caught up in other things and miss all but a few episodes of season 11. I’m watching all together too much right now to do a full SPN rewatch, but I’m eager to see what you think of it while I wait for season 11 to hit Netflix or cycle back around on Hulu.

You’ve probably realized it already, but if I can make one tiny correction: Sam is the younger brother and Dean the older. It totally doesn’t feel that way, with Sam clearly being a little more put together in the life department, though.